Page 73 of Duskbound

When I opened them again, I was somewhere else entirely. Sunlight streamed through arched windows, illuminating a lobby I'd never seen before. But I knew these people—Eron and Jacquelina, the people I had grown up with in the group home—The House of Unity. The first Riftborne couple to bear a child in Luminaria. They sat rigid in their chairs. Between them sat a small girl with curious eyes. Leila, their daughter.

A woman approached, hand extended toward Leila. She went willingly, her innocent smile never faltering. Jacquelina collapsed into Eron as tears streaked down her face.

No.I knew what came next. I didn't want to see this, didn't want to?—

But the scene shifted anyway. Leila sat in the center of a room, a man standing before her. The branding iron emerged from strange-colored flames, and her smile finally broke.

"Stop!" I screamed. "Please, stop!"

The world tilted, twisted, and suddenly I was looking through Leila's eyes. Those small fingers—my fingers—reached out as the brand descended. The pain tore through me as the hot metal met my skin, my flesh melting against the burn. I screamed. Writhed. The pain was unimaginable until consciousness drifted out of reach.

The apothecary materialized around me, familiar wooden shelves laden with dried herbs and tinctures. I was at my desk, the one where I'd spent countless hours grinding herbs and copying Ma's recipes. The air felt thick, heavy with an unfamiliar stench.

"Those unruly herbs giving you trouble again?" Ma's voice carried from behind me, warm and familiar. I turned to find her organizing bottles, hibiscus stains marking her hands like always. Her silver-threaded chestnut hair was coming loose from its bun, just as I remembered.

"Something smells awful today," I said, falling into our usual banter despite the wrongness creeping at the edges of my mind.

"Worse than the time you let those mushrooms rot?" She shot me that knowing look, the one that always made me feel like a child again.

Movement flickered in my peripheral vision. My eyes shot to the back shelves, and my heart stopped.

They stood there—Bekha and Jordaan—their eyes hollow and white, skin gray and peeling. The stench of decay rolled off them in waves.No. No, they're not dead. I didn't kill them. I didn't?—

Ma's eyes were wide with horror as her gaze fell upon their bodies, hands flying up over her mouth as they pointed at me.

"Did you do this, Fia?" Ma's voice cracked as she stumbledbackward. The fear in her eyes cut deeper than any blade. "What are you?"

"They're not dead," I whispered, the words tumbling out faster and faster. "They're not dead. No. No. No?—"

I stepped toward her, reaching out, but she recoiled.

"Stay away from me!" the scream tore from her throat, ripping through my chest.

Something shattered inside me. Tears welled up, blurring the horror before me. When they finally spilled over, the scene dissolved, reforming into?—

Silk sheets beneath me. A familiar weight above me. Burnt amber and vetiver filled my lungs as Laryk's breath ghosted across my neck, his fingers tangled in my hair. My heart swelled at his closeness.

"Perfect," he murmured against my throat. His emerald eyes locked with mine, softening in that rare way they did only for me, before darkening as he moved. A moan escaped my lips and his grip tightened.

"You're different," he breathed. "Unique. The most incredible thing I've ever laid eyes on." Each word sent warmth blooming through my chest, erasing the hollow ache that had lived there for so long. This was everything I'd wanted, everything I'd missed.

My fingers traced the planes of his back as pleasure built between us. His mouth found mine, and I lost myself in the kiss, in the perfect rightness of this moment.

And then he was at my throat, teeth gliding across my skin before he kissed, pulling more of me into him. But the next time he spoke, his voice was different. "My favorite weapon,” he groaned against my collarbone.

"What?" The word caught in my throat.

His hand fisted in my hair, yanking my head to the side. "Look how stunning you are," he commanded, forcing my gaze toward the mirror on the wall.

Narissa's face glared back at me, her red hair spilling across the silk sheets like fresh blood.

Bile rose in my throat as her eyes met mine in the mirror, her lips curving into a knowing smile. I lurched to the side of the bed, my body convulsing as I retched. The silk sheets twisted around me as the world tilted?—

And suddenly I was on my back, dead grass crackling beneath me. The bed was gone. Laryk was gone. Only darkness stretched above me, absolute and endless. Reality slammed back into focus with brutal clarity—the Void. I was in the Void.

My chest heaved as I gasped for air, the shadows pressing in around me like a physical weight. The grass beneath my fingers felt wrong, each blade sharp enough to draw blood. Had I imagined everything? Osta's blood-filled eyes, Ma's terror, Laryk's?—

No.Don't think about it. Don't?—

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